Transcription:
Oakland Jan 16th 1875 My dear Sister Sarah I have just returned from a long train of excursions in the Sierras find yours
many other letters waiting, all that accumulated for five months I spent my holidays on the Yuba Feather rivers exploring.
I have of course worked hard enjoyed hard. Ascending Mtns crossing Canons. Rambling? ceaseless ly over hill dale plain, lava
bed I thought of you all gathered with your little ones enjoying the sweet simple pleasures that belong to your lives loves.
I have not yet in all my wanderings found a single person so free as myself. Yet I am bound by my studies the laws of my own
life. At times I feel as if driven with whips, ridden upon, when in the 00716